The Childless Revolution Madelyn Cain Analysis

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Unterreiner English 111 #27074 March 4, 2008 Compare/Contrast Essay “The Childless Revolution” and “The Second Shift” In the essay “The Childless Revolution” by Madelyn Cain, Cain argues against the negative stereotypes associated with the number of women who choose to be childless. She gives the reader an exact idea of what she is discussing by using specific numbers and statistics to prove her point that all women do not have children to be accepted into society. In her work titled “The Second Shift” the author, Sylvia Hewlett, argues that even successful married women still do the majority of the domestic housework. In Hewlett’s essay, she also uses statistics and percentages to give the reader a better idea of exactly how much…show more content…
She shows the reader a sense of fairness by giving percentages from all aspects of the topic meaning she gives percentages from different duties and household chores that women do as opposed to men. Cain states that “Fifty percent of married, high-achieving women assume prime responsibility for meal preparation-only 9 percent of their husbands/partners take prime responsibility for this task. Fifty-six percent of these women take prime responsibility for doing laundry; only 10 percent of husbands take care of this task (505).” Hewlett uses language and diction to appeal to women who are married as well as husbands/partners to try and make them aware of the unequal balance of domestic housework among women and…show more content…
Cain uses inductive reasoning when she quotes “According to the U.S Census Bureau, in 1993 there were 34.9 million American families that were childless and only 33.3 million families with a child under the age of 18 (488).” Cain uses this example to prove to the reader that there has been a dramatic increase in the number of childless women over the past 30 years. Cain also uses deductive reasoning throughout her essay. For example, Cain quotes David Pearce Snyder from The Futurist Magazine “Our reasons for having children have changed over time. Whereas in earlier days children were needed to support a family, social safety nets have taken care of those needs (489).” By quoting another person, Cain shows the reader that the principle of her claim is also accepted by other people. Cain convinces the reader that not only she believes what she is arguing, but others also believe the same
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